I have long suspected that the name given to this girl is slightly off-color. If you look up definitions of "Fanny," you'll see what I mean. The singer is riding with a girl with a bright fanny? (I hope this suggestion, which I think would appeal to many literary scholars, does not violate The Straight Dope rules.)

There's a plaque on the corner in Medford MA (on the very block where I lived for six months) stating that this song was based on sleigh races held in downtown Medford. In fact, they have a festival every year to celebrate it:

Quote:

About the Song
"Jingle Bells," the now world famous holiday tune, was composed at the Simpson Tavern in Medford, Massachusetts in 1850 by James Pierpont (1822-1893). The tavern stood at the site which is now 19 High Street in Medford Square. The song was composed in the presence of Mrs. Otis Waterman, who later verified the location of the song's composition. In 1857, James Pierpont, while living in Georgia, copyrighted "Jingle Bells." The lyrics of the song tell of the sleigh rides held on Salem Street in the early 1800s.

Could be. That would be a bit over 22 mph., which sounds like a decent speed for a standardbred, (or even a trotter), when pulling a sleigh across packed snow.

The lyrics are:

Quote:

Just get a bob tailed bay
Two forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack, you'll take the lead

Two forty, 2:40, is the bay's speed on dry ground. It's just saying that you should use a fast horse, not the speed of the horse pulling a sleigh through snow, a very different thing.

The reference would be to a trotting horse, one hitched to a two-wheeled sulky for racing. Two forty would be a good time for an ordinary horse. Racing horses had just begun to break two thirty in 1850.

There's a plaque on the corner in Medford MA (on the very block where I lived for six months) stating that this song was based on sleigh races held in downtown Medford. In fact, they have a festival every year to celebrate it:

In that case we can be pretty sure that Fanny used a metric ton of hairspray.

Another Jingle Bells curiosity: whence the commonly sung addition of "ha ha ha" after the line "laughing all the way"?

As a child in the sixties, I don't recall anyone doing that - now it seems de rigeur. Always done a shade insincerely, as in "we know what a bunch of nostalgic buncombe this song, and its depiction of an activity few of us have ever personally experienced, is; let us now gently mock it and the top-hatted, sideburn-joweled swell who spawned it".

According to my aussie friend, 'fanny bright' would be the australian equivalent of 'Pussy Galore' (of James Bond fame) today.

Plenty of Aussies right here on the forum, me for instance. While "fanny" definitely means "lady parts" everywhere but the US (where it means "arse", which yanks call "ass"), there's no meaning of "bright" I've ever heard apart from "light" or "clever".

Nellie Bly (May 5, 1864[1] – January 27, 1922) was the pen name of American journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochrane. She remains notable for two feats: a record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg, and an exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. In addition to her writing, she was also an industrialist and charity worker. She originally intended for her pseudonym to be "Nelly Bly," but her editor wrote "Nellie" by mistake, and the error stuck.

William Douglas became a soldier in the Royal Scots and fought in Germany and Spain and rose to the rank of captain. He also fought at least two duels. He returned to his estate at Fingland in 1694. Traditionally it is said that Douglas had a romance with Anna/Anne Laurie (16 December 1682, Barjarg Tower, in Keir, near Auldgirth, Scotland — 5 May 1764, Friars' Carse, Dumfries-shire, Scotland). Anna was the youngest daughter of Robert Laurie, who became first baronet of Maxwellton in 1685. The legend says that her father opposed a marriage. This may have been because Anna was very young; she was only in her mid-teens when her father died. It may also have been because of Douglas's aggressive temperament or more likely because of his Jacobite allegiances. It is known for certain that they knew of each because in a later letter by Anna she says in reply to news about Douglas, "I trust that he has forsaken his treasonable opinions, and that he is content." ...

Anna Laurie's later life

In Edinburgh in 29 August 1709 Anna married Alexander Fergusson, 14th Laird of Craigdarroch. (Early editions of Brewer's are in error claiming her husband was James Ferguson, who was in fact her son.) She lived at Craigdarroch for 33 years. Under her directions the present mansion of Craigdarroch was built, and a relic of her taste is still preserved in the formal Georgian gardens at the rear of the house. She was born on 16 December 1682, about 6 o'clock in the morning at Barjarg Tower, near Auldgirth, Scotland. Annie Laurie died on a Saturday, 5 April 1764, and some sources say she was buried at Craigdarroch. Portraits of her exist at Maxwelton and at Mansfield, the seat of the Stuart-Monteiths. The portraits show that she had blue eyes.

While we can all snicker at the slang meanings of "fanny," it is indeed a legitimate first name (e.g. Fanny Farmer) and probably didn't conjure up those meanings when it was more commonly used.

It's the difference between British slang and American slang. Fanny means vulva in Britain. In America, the term has always meant buttocks. It's a quite dirty term in Britain, but a polite euphemism in America.

Usage shows it to appear much later than we would think. It didn't start showing up in American slang until the 1920s, so any use of it in the 19th century would be innocent. And even though it seems likely that the term came from John Cleland's 1748 book Fanny Hill, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, it doesn't appear in the modern sense until the 1830s. Heck, Jane Austin used Fanny for the heroine in Mansfield Park.

Like many slang terms, especially obscene slang, fanny probably was used earlier than the print first usages. Whether Cleland was using a current term I don't know, but Fanny Hill = public mound, a pun on the Latin term mons veneris works too well to be complete coincidence, so I bet he did. We discussed it more in this thread.

Not just in Britain - as I noted several post up, it means that in Australia, and to the best of my knowledge that's what it means in every native English-speaking country except the USA and maybe Canada, which picks up a lot more US influence.

Australia isn't part of Britain. New Zealand isn't part of Britain. The Republic of Ireland, while part of the British Isles, is not part of Great Britain. India, South Africa, and so on. All places where English is either the native language or one of them, all not Britain.

It irritates me when Americans act like they're the only English speakers outside the UK.

Not just in Britain - as I noted several post up, it means that in Australia, and to the best of my knowledge that's what it means in every native English-speaking country except the USA and maybe Canada, which picks up a lot more US influence.

Australia isn't part of Britain. New Zealand isn't part of Britain. The Republic of Ireland, while part of the British Isles, is not part of Great Britain. India, South Africa, and so on. All places where English is either the native language or one of them, all not Britain.

It irritates me when Americans act like they're the only English speakers outside the UK.

Well, it irritates me when people drag in irrelevancies to threads. I was talking about 18th & 19th century slang usage in Britain and America and how one might have influenced the other. That additional countries later adopted the same slang may be true but it has no part in this discussion. Context is everything.

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